Haunting Memories
by mythlover20
Summary: Cottoncandy Bingo Round Two Prompt 331: Sleepwalking/Sleeptalking Set Pre-ST:ID Khan and his family have escaped their captors, but the torments they suffered still lie with them. KhanxOCs. No sex, no relationships, just pure unbridled stress and concern. My first ever Star Trek fiction. Please be kind.


**Thank you everyone who ready my ME Shrios fic "Cuddle." I'm glad you liked it. :)**

**To Silvanne. Thank you _so much_ for your review on "I Am Not Wallpaper." Yes, you seem to be one of the few who understand. Isn't it a shame that a feminist character is immediately degraded, abused, and dismissed the second she shows even the tiniest bit of "weakness," regardless of the circumstances? Truth be told, I'm surprised I didn't get the "FemiNazi" label thrown at me. Would have thought that would be one of the first things those who called me a sexist for exposing David as a typical man would call me. **

**Fic Update: A Visit From The Past is unfortunately on hold until I am able to afford a new power cable for my laptop. Stupid me forgot to back it up to my external harddrive and _of course_ the power cable had to wait to fail until I had no battery life left.**

**I am still open for beta-editing, but I am also building up my business as a Freelance Editor. I have started my blog at www. the geeky editor. tumblr. com (minus the spaces) for "writerly" and "editorly" content, all with a geeky flair that you won't find anywhere else. **

**I hope you like this piece. It is the first Start Trek piece I have ever published, so please be kind.**

**The title of this fiction is kindly supplied by my little sister, AseniaKarana, because she can title much better than I.**

**Keelah Se'lai, Honour Thane, Live Long and Prosper, and "I will always ship Sherlock and Molly." (Thank you, Oxford Dictionaries Blog)**

* * *

**Cottoncandy Bingo Prompt Fill**

**Card One: Two Intersecting Single-Line Bingos**

**Prompt 331: Sleepwalking/Sleeptalking**

**Fandom: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Films)**

**Pairing: Khan Noonien Singh (ST:ID) x OC **

**Word Count: 875**

A person learnt a lot of things when they least expected it; a lot of it was completely unprepared for. It shocked and dismayed, and left a person questioning everything they knew about the world. An augment was no different. For all their superior strength and intellect an Augment was still human. Better, but still susceptible to the same failings and trappings as the rest of the lowly, pitiful creatures they will one day rise above and conquer.

That night proved it without a doubt. Cold and afraid, huddled with his family in an old, abandoned building at the border of Pakistan, Khan woke to muffled sobs and quiet, sleepy pleas. His sharp eyes snapped open and scanned the area around him. Fifty augments slept around him, huddled together for what warmth they could find. Another twelve stood guard over their sleeping forms, staring out into the night waiting for the first sign of the attack that would inevitably come. Another twelve such groups were scattered along the Indian border, heading quite literally for the hills where the rugged terrain and extensive cave networks would keep them safe long enough to regroup and plan their next move - providing they lasted that long after what they had to do to escape.

"No… please…"

The sleepy murmurs became coherent. Khan sat up and turned towards the noise – his superior hearing picking up the direction and distance to the cause far more easily than they had when he was still a human child. Quietly he rose to his feet and moved towards the source - every step as silent as the stone beneath him – until he reached the sleeping augment who was weeping in her dreams.

Khan shook his head. "Oh, Joan," he whispered.

Joan flinched, and curled into a ball against Eliza's side. "Please… don't… no…"

Khan sighed and knelt beside her. Nineteen years old to his twenty-two, grown and altered from scratch and born into the Augment Program from a stolen egg and carried by a paid _sudras_. She had never known a normal life, or a loving parent - only suffering.

Maybe she was the lucky one. He knew such a life, and its loss still hurt, even now when logically he knew they were all dead – hide the trail, tie up the loose ends, hide the crime. Years of torture and torment made all the worse because he still had the memories of that hard but happy life. Joan never had that to lose.

"No… please… it hurts…" Joan begged, her voice growing louder.

Eliza and Martial began to twitch beside Joan. Within minutes they would wake, and witness as he was witnessing their fellow augment's subconscious suffering. As Joan's mutterings grew louder others would, too.

Khan shook his head. The augments had little that was their own; their dreams should not be public knowledge. The only one apart from Joan who should be privy to them was he, to help or… to do what he must to ensure the safety of his family. He needed to wake her.

Sharp pain ricocheted through his fingers instead of the soft, smooth warmth of Joan's bare shoulder. Khan raised one eyebrow in question and looked down into Joan's hard pale-green eyes.

A raised eyebrow in turn was her only query.

"Relieve Joaquin on sentry duty. Wake Kati before dawn to replace you," Khan said.

Joan nodded, and released Khan's hand.

Khan rose to his feet and watched the young assassin rise elegantly to her own. With a respectful bow of her head, Joan picked her way past him and through the sleeping bodies to Joaquin's side.

Khan instinctively flexed his aching fingers, relieved there were no broken bones this time. His eyes followed Joan's form across the large room until Joaquin left her side and found a place on the floor beside Kati. The waxing gibbous moon lit Joan's rigid silhouette in silver, highlighting how her entire being was focused on her duty, bar her fingers, which clenched into fists at her side. Whatever she had dreamed it haunted her, even in her waking hours.

As quietly as before Khan moved through the sleeping augments to Rorik's side and relieved him of his post. He took it up at the window and looked out. The bleak landscape spread out below him, the other buildings that sheltered more of his people creating shadows that only augment eyes could penetrate.

Khan refused to let himself breathe even the slightest sigh of relief. For now they were safe, but they wouldn't always be. He needed to seek out and destroy every possible threat to his family. He was their leader; they had chosen him and he swore to them he would do everything he must to ensure their safety.

His eyes flickered back to the assassin. Yes, he would do whatever he had to. He must forsake her privacy and know what it was she dreamt that made her cry out in her sleep. He could not – would not – let her endanger them further. At dawn, when they moved on, he would question her. He would conquer her dreams, or he would conquer her.

No one was more important than the survival of the whole. Not even her.


End file.
